My daughter didn\u2019t die in an accident. She was killed by a 17-year-old who made a decision to drink alcohol and smoke marijuana before getting in the driver\u2019s seat of her car.<\/p>\n
For years, I have made this distinction.<\/p>\n
Drunk driving is a crime that kills nearly 11,000 people a year and injuries another 300,000. These crashes are violent. They change lives forever. And the difference between a DUI and a DUI death is the snap of a finger.<\/p>\n
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\nMy 16-year-old daughter, Helen Marie, was rollerblading on a bike path on a sunny June afternoon in 2000 when a car full of drunk and stoned teenagers veered off the road and into her, sending her body flying yards through the air. All she could do was look up and die.<\/p>\n
My precious 16-year-old daughter\u2019s cause of death: Blunt force trauma. Her skull was fractured from ear to ear. After the crash, all I could do was replay the terror of my daughter\u2019s final moments. Over and over.<\/p>\n
The same year Helen Marie was killed, a drunk driver in Florida pleaded guilty to DUI and causing serious bodily injury to two people, for which he received a 2-1\/2 year prison sentence. The case led to a 2004 Supreme Court ruling that crashes like these did not amount to \u201ccrimes of violence.\u201d To state otherwise, according to the opinion would \u201cblur the distinction between the \u2018violent\u2019 crimes Congress sought to distinguish for heightened punishment and other crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n